Reading Art: "The Middle Ages in 50 Objects"

In a new text from Cambridge Press, authors Elina Gertsman and Barbara H. Rosenwein offer readers easy access to understanding a complex period of time. The Middle Ages in 50 Objects (Cambridge Press, 2018) uses individual works from the comprehensive collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art to exemplify both broad movements and specific moments in history.

As the introductory text explains, the Middle Ages is not a simple and cohesive era. To plainly summarize life from the 3rd to 16th Centuries across several continents would be a difficult task indeed. The term encompasses many cultures, regions, and religions. To cover this wide range of cultural production, the authors have carefully selected objects that tell compelling stories. The text is subdivided into four sections that are then arranged chronologically: The Holy and the Faithful; The Sinful and the Spectral; Daily Life and Its Fictions; and Death and Its Aftermath. Within these themes, European, Byzantine, and Islamic cultures are explored through the objects they created.

Using an object-centered approach lends an intimacy and specificity to a text that has broad and far-reaching goals. Coupled with beautiful images and helpful maps, the essays that contextualize the objects are in-depth, yet approachable. Clearly written and easy to read, they will appeal to the layperson and scholar, as they offer easily digestible bites of dense information. The expertise and passion of the authors is clear, as they tackle a broad range of objects in every sense: coming from every medieval era, geographical range, in common and rare materials, serving a range of uses.

But the Middle Ages is particularly illuminated by its material objects because its culture was so attuned to the meanings of things as they were felt, seen, heard, tasted, and even smelled—the incense burning in a mosque, the gleam of light from a garnet brooch, the chanting in a synagogue, the touch of fingers to an ivory mirror, the Eucharistic wafer dissolving in the mouthThe Middle Ages in 50 Objects, xiv

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Holden Collection 1916.795

The Madonna of Humility with the Temptation of Eve, c. 1400. Olivuccio di Ciccarello (Italian, Marche, 1360/65-1439). Tempera and gold on wood panel.

The author’s interdisciplinary approach to explaining each object uses them as a point of reference for well-researched and revelatory interpretations. Using art historical, museological, and historical lenses brings each object to life, revealing the multi-dimensional backgrounds of each work, and offering an engaging angle for a range of readers.

The Middle Ages in 50 Objects, by Elina Gertsman and Barbara H. Rosenwein, is available now from Cambridge Press.